Oumuamua is the first known interstellar object to pass through the Solar System. Formally designated 1I/2017 U1, it was discovered by Robert Weryk using the Pan-STARRS telescope at Haleakala Observatory, Hawaii, on 19 October 2017, 40 days after it passed its closest point to the Sun. When first seen, it was about 33,000,000 km from Earth (about 85 times as far away as the Moon), and already heading away from the Sun.

Cassini launched aboard a Titan IVB/Centaur on 15 October 1997, Cassini had been active in space for nearly 20 years, with 13 years spent orbiting Saturn, studying the planet and its system since entering orbit on 1 July 2004. The voyage to Saturn included flybys of Venus (April 1998 and June 1999), Earth (August 1999), the asteroid 2685 Masursky, and Jupiter (December 2000). Its mission ended on 15 September 2017, when Cassini flew into Saturn’s upper atmosphere and burned up at a very high temperature, in order to prevent any risk of contaminating Saturn’s moons, some of which have active environments that could potentially bear life. (At that point Cassini lacked sufficient power to leave the Saturn system so it could only be left in orbit where it might collide with a moon or be destroyed). The mission is widely perceived to have been successful beyond expectation. Cassini-Huygens has been described by NASA’s Planetary Science Division Director as a “mission of firsts”, that has revolutionized human understanding of the Saturn system, including its moons and rings, and our understanding of where life might be found in the Solar System.

Cassini‘s original mission was planned to last for four years, from June 2004 to May 2008. The mission was extended for another two years until September 2010, branded the Cassini Equinox Mission. The mission was extended a second and final time with the Cassini Solstice Mission, lasting another seven years until 15 September 2017, on which date Cassini was de-orbited by being allowed to burn up in Saturn’s upper atmosphere.

The Huygens module traveled with Cassini until its separation from the probe on 25 December 2004; it was successfully landed by parachute on Titan on January 14, 2005. It successfully returned data to Earth for around 90 minutes, using the orbiter as a relay. This was the first landing ever accomplished in the outer Solar System and the first landing on a moon other than our own. Cassini continued to study the Saturn system in the following years.

At the end of its mission, the Cassini spacecraft executed the “Grand Finale” of its mission: several risky passes through the gaps between Saturn and Saturn’s inner rings. The purpose of this phase was to maximize Cassini‘s scientific outcome before the spacecraft was destroyed. The atmospheric entry of Cassini effectively ended the mission, although data analysis and production will continue afterwards.

On Monday, August 21, 2017, a total solar eclipse, frequently referred to as the “Great American Eclipse“, was visible within a band across the entire contiguous United States passing from the Pacific to the Atlantic coast. In other countries it was only visible as a partial eclipse

NASA has reported a catastrophic event is taking place in space, but scientists are still investigating what exactly has happened or happening. Mysterious flashes of X-rays beamed towards Earth before vanishing just 24 hours later, leaving scientists to investigate the source. Initial findings suggest it came from a “completely new type of cataclysmic event”. The phenomenon was captured by NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, stemmed from a galaxy 10.7 billion light years away. The X-ray source, is located in the sky known as Chandra Deep Field-South (CDF-S).